Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery
MAYVILLE TOWNSHIP, CLARK COUNTY, WI

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Transcriber: Stan

Clark Co., Wis. Internet Library Home Page

Dorchester Cemetery History

Search the Clark County, Birth Indexes & Death Indexes.

Visit the Mayville Township research page.

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**Our spreadsheets can contain a large amount of information and may take several minutes to display. This data was obtained from cemetery & family records, a walk-through, social security death indexes, the Clark Co., WI Internet Library, tombstone photos, obituaries and biographical sources. The accuracy of the data varies and may include errors. If you have additions or corrections, please contact us. If you cannot find a desired obituary in the ALHN database to verify the entry, you may wish to order a micro-film of a local newspaper from the time frame you are researching. The available newspapers can be requested from the Wisconsin State Historical through your local library. Please consider submitting any newly acquired items to the ALHN Records Board. If you have a bit of extra time, why not type a few unrelated items as a random act of kindness to future researchers?

**Please note that there is no known map of the inhabitants of this cemetery. I have contacted the Village of Dorchester, the historian, and the funeral home. This cemetery has not been used recently. What is presented here is transcribed to the best of my ability from the old tombstones. If anyone has any helpful resources, or corrections, please contact me.

Additional Notes by Dan Rusch-Fischer

The Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery was untended for many years. Beaulah Mae (Jensen) Fischer (now deceased), persuaded the Dorchester Village Board to take over care of the cemetery. Melvin Leroy Fischer made, donated, and installed the cemetery sign seen in the photo. The cemetery was either donated or sold (there is a deed on record {Clark County Register of Deeds, Vol. 44, p. 100 showing a transaction for $30 - which may or may not have actually been paid) by the Norwegian Ev. Lutheran Church to Andreas Frederick Ferdinand (AFF) Jensen on October 13, 1888. The 80-acre property from which the cemetery was set aside, was owned by AFF and Huldah Jensen and included their home, general store, barn, shed, ice house, and warehouse. It appears from the dates on tombstones (e.g., Eddie Winchester died 25 Sep 1878) that the use as a graveyard predated the formal cemetery organization. The 1880 Mayville plat map shows a cemetery symbol at the Norwegian Cemtery's current location and the property owned by Jane A. Evans. Oddly, the 1893 plat shows AFF & Huldah owning the property, but no cemetery symbol appears; nor does it appear on subsequent plats.

Of AFF & Huldah's 15 children: Hannah Amelia (22 Mar 1869 - 29 Dec. 1884); Peter Daniel (18 Oct 1876 - 01 Sep 1905); and Ray (22 Apr 1890 - 13 Aug 1891) are buried in this cemetery. John Otto is shown buried in this cemetery, but there is no marker and his year of death is from a transcription error combining his death date with Hannah's death year. His birth and death dates are (26 Sep 1867 - 03 Oct 1869); it is more likely that he is buried somewhere in Sauk County as his death date preceded the Jensen's moving from Sauk County to Dorchester/Little Black in 1873 by 3-4 years).

Hannah's middle name Amelia, came from AFF's twin sister, Flora Eleanora Amalia (FEA) who was given the name Amalia in recognition of AFF & FEA's short-lived 1st-born sister Emilie Margarethe Jensen (17 Sep 1837 - 11 May 1838). Not only were AFF and FEA twins born in Lyngby, Denmark, their father Peter Daniel Jensen (27 Jun 1814 - 13 Oct 1850), also was a twin. His twin brother was Fritz Jensen (27 Jun 1814 - 16 16 Dec 1816).

Family stories, especially those touching on the famous or royal, often get conflated or misinterpreted; one of these is that AFF & FEA had the Queen of Denmark as a godparent. Although this is not accurate, AFF & FEA's parents Peter Daniel Jensen and his wife Severine Nicoline Petersen did have connections to the royal estates and royal servants.
Several generations of the Jensen's had worked as Journeymen Gardeners at Royal Danish estates, including the Eremitage Castle and its royal hunting estate, and the Sorgenfri Castle and estate. When the Sorgenfri Castle's formal knot gardens were torn up and replaced with 'landscape garden in the English style', AFF & FEA's grandfather was sent to England to study the techniques that would be needed to maintain the new gardens back in Denmark.

Their parents were also on more than speaking terms with servants that had very high positions with the Danish Royal family. AFF & FEA's godparents on their christening day 5 May 1839 included: Christian Autzen, personal servant to her royal highness Princess Caroline Amalie, and Nickolai Rønne, manager (castellon) of the royal castle and estate of Sorgenfri in Lyngby. Princess Caroline Amalie was the wife of Prince Christian Frederik, who became King Christian VIII later that year on 03 Dec 1939, that elevated Princess Caroline Amalie to Queen of Denmark.